


The Servant or the Wife?

by idontknowwhyimawake



Series: The World of Merlin [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Doesn’t happen until the end though, Gen, Humor, Magic Revealed, the knights are bored
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27799132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idontknowwhyimawake/pseuds/idontknowwhyimawake
Summary: With Arthur out doing kingly duties and Merlin off getting who knows what for Gaius, the knights become bored. That is, until Gwaine decided to suggest a game to play.Merlin or the Wife? 20 coins are at stake
Relationships: Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: The World of Merlin [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033875
Comments: 29
Kudos: 246





	The Servant or the Wife?

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of based this off of a tumblr post I saw a while back. I don’t really have any notes I want to make other than I lowkey wrote this at 3am lmao so yeah

The knights had never been so bored in their entire lives.

A large snow storm had overtaken Camelot, leaving all her residents with no other option other than to be locked in their homes. 

Arthur had been busy the entire week trying to make sure the people of Camelot didn’t starve and that they were all warm enough. He had cancelled any type of knightly activities just so he could attend to his so called “kingly duties.”

None of the knights had even seen the young king since the day the snow storm began, so they had no idea if he was even alive. He probably was, since there was no way Merlin would actually let Arthur die, but still, the thoughts of them not being able to see their friend and leader were torturing.

As for Merlin, the knights had seen him about the halls running errands for Gaius or doing chores for Arthur, but the young manservant had been too busy to stop and go about their usual chatter. 

This made sense of course, since with the storm more people were bound to get sick and Gaius, being in his older years, couldn’t always get to the lower parts of Camelot to deliver the medicine with all the ice on the pathways.

On the fourth day of the lock-in, Gwaine had spotted Merlin headed towards the kitchen, most likely for Arthur and Gwen’s dinner, and had tried to stop him in order to see if his friend wanted to join him in pranking the other knights. Merlin had seemed panicked and rushed however, and rejected Gwaine’s offer, leaving the knighted man standing there in the freezing halls.

It was now the seventh day of the dreaded snow storm, and Leon, Percival, Elyan, Lancelot, and Gwaine, were all sitting at the round table, having nothing better to do.

Percival and Elyan were tossing Arthur’s crown, that they had found abandoned in his room when they had snuck in to try and pry the man out of his duties, back and forth. Leon and Lancelot seemed to be looking over a map that would have their new patrol routes when the storm was over, something they had been doing the past four days, and Gwaine had never seen either of them look less enthusiastic when attending to their duties. 

“We should play a game,” Gwaine spoke suddenly, his voice piercing through the freezing air.

Percival caught Arthur’s crown right before it was about to hit the floor and turned to look at his friend, “what kind of game?”

Gwaine bit his lip. He wasn’t sure. He and the others had probably played every type of game there was to play, including hide and seek. Let’s just say the cook wasn’t too happy when she found Elyan hiding under a load of flour. They were all now officially banned from the kitchen and Elyan and Gwaine had even resorted to lowering a hook from the ceiling in order to get their food because Merlin wasn’t yet aware of the situation, so he couldn’t talk to her.

“I don’t know, but anything better than just sitting here and looking over the patrol map for the 50th time,” he said, eyeing Leon and Lancelot.

Lancelot rolled his eyes, “Would playing hide and seek be better? Perhaps we could get banned from the armory this time.”

Elyan winced at the reminder of the horrific game they had played the other day. He still couldn’t hear properly from all the yelling the cook had done.

Gwaine rubbed the beard he didn’t have and began to think of possible games they could play. It wasn’t until he saw a guard that was usually stationed outside of Arthur’s chambers walk by them, that an idea formed.

“I’ll be right back,” Gwaine told his friends, and bounded up from his seat to race after the guard. “You! Hey you! Background character that is usually outside of Arthur’s room!”

The guard stopped in his tracks and turned around the face of Gwaine, a look of pure confusion on his face. “Me?’

Gwaine scoffed, “yes, you. I was sitting in the other room, bored out of my mind, when I saw you walk by and happened to remember something quite interesting I overheard you say a few months ago.”

The guard furrowed his eyebrows, and seemed to be going through his brain as to what he could have possibly said that would be of importance now.

“You were telling your friend that you happened to have a list of things Arthur has said to Gwen and Merlin and that unless you hadn’t put their names beside what he said, you wouldn’t of been able to tell who he was saying it to,” Gwaine reminded him.

The guards eyes lit up as he remembered the list he made, “yes, it is sitting in my chambers as of the moment.”

Gwaine grinned a wicked grin. “Perfect. I need it.”

The guard looked taken aback, “what for?”

Gwaine just smiled, “I want it for a game I wish to play with my fellow knights.”

Now, this guard just so happened to be one of the guards that witnessed many of the shenanigans the knights got into , and he realized the quicker he did what Gwaine asked the less likely it would be him who was caught up in whatever he was planning. “I will go and fetch the list now, sir knight.”

“Great, meet me back in the throne room with the round table,” Gwaine instructed the guard.

He nodded and rushed off to where Gwaine assumed his chambers would be. 

Gwaine practically skipped on his way back to his friends as the thoughts of all the chaos this game would cause came to mind.

“Why do I feel like this game will cause one of us to flip another table,” Elyan said as soon as he spotted Gwaine skipping back to them.

Gwaine shrugged, “do you have no trust in me?”

“It depends on the day,” Leon said, his voice filled with distrust. “Today happens to be one of those days.”

It was at this moment that the guard came running in with two sheets of paper. One seemed to have the answer key as to who he was speaking to, and the other seemed to have the actual quotes. The guard was seeming to be watching every corner for some kind of clue this might be Gwaine playing a prank on him. He set the list in Gwaine’s hand before speaking. “Please, sir knight, should the king ask where you got his I beg for you to not mention my name.”

Gwaine smiled awkwardly and patted his shoulder, “there, there. The king will never know you were the one to create this masterpiece.” He never told him he didn’t even know the guards name.

The unnamed guard nodded, before sprinting off, practically tripping over his own feet in order to get out of the room.

“Wait!” Gwaine called out, deciding last minute to incorporate the unsuspecting guard in his game.

The guard was nearly out the door before he froze and sadly turned back around. Gwaine pointed to a corner of the room. “Go stand there.”

The guard did as he was told and dragged his feet over to the corner.

“What is that?” Percival said, voicing the thoughts of everyone in the room.

“This is the game we’ve so desperately needed, arriving to us at last,” Gwaine spoke.

“What is the game?” Leon asked, fidgeting slightly. He didn’t even know if he wanted to participate in the game, considering the chaotic grin on Gwaine’s face.

Gwaine jumped onto the round table and held out the list for everyone to see, “what I have here, my dear friends, is a list of things Arthur has said to his loyal manservant and of things he has said to his kind hearted wife.” He paused for dramatic effect before continuing. “We will be guessing who Arthur was speaking to in this game.”

A moment of utter silence was broken by Percival dropping Arthur’s crown, “oops. My bad.”

Lancelot, of all people, was the first that decided to speak. “I’m in.”

Elyan smirked and slammed his fist down on the table, “me too.

Percival twirled Arthur’s crown around his finger, “sounds ridiculous. Count me in too.”

Everybody looked towards Leon, who seemed to be considering his options.

“Please, Leon,” Gwaine said, using his best puppy dog eyes.

Leon sighed, “fine. But Arthur can never know.”

“What about Merlin?” Elyan questioned. “Or Gwen?”

Percival shrugged, “let’s be honest, with all the servant gossip Merlin hears, he’ll know about this within two days, and he’ll surely tell Gwen, considering how close they are.”

“What will be the prize for who has the most correct?” Lancelot asked.

Gwaine seemed to consider a moment before responding. “We each shall sacrifice 20 of our coins to the victor.”

“Seems fair,” Elyan said.

“A most generous prize,” Leon agreed.

Gwaine smiled triumphantly. “Great! Then we may begin. Everybody, take a seat, and you, guard that I dragged in here!”

The guard that had waited in the corner perked up.

“I will give you the list and you will read off the words, then after we’ve made out guesses, you will read who Arthur was talking to, understand?”

“Yes, sir knight,” the guard muttered, and took the list back from Gwaine. His eyes scanned the list and his mouth opened to sputter out the first quote. “If I marry her, what will you do?”

“Gwen,” Elyan immediately said.

“Merlin,” Lancelot said, not even a split second after. 

“That was Gwen,” Leon said, sure of himself.

“I will agree with Elyan and Leon on this one,” Percival said.

Gwaine considered his options. He remembered how upset Merlin had been when he had learned of one of Arthur’s past arranged marriages, and couldn’t help but think perhaps Arthur was trying to convince Merlin that he needed to go through with the marriage. “Merlin,” Gwaine said.

“Sir Leon, Sir Percival, and Sir Elyan have all earned a point for this round,” the guard told everybody.

Gwaine clenched his fists as he took a deep breath. This was only the first round. He would smash Elyan, Leon, and Percival into tony little pieces soon enough. Soon, he would be as rich as Arthur himself. He just had to wait. “Alright, let’s move onto the second one, shall we?”

Leon, Percival, and Elyan all glared at Gwaine as they didn’t get to celebrate their little moment of victory.

The guards eyes moved downward. “So, where are my flowers?’ Is the second one.”

Gwaine rolled his eyes. It was painfully obvious who Arthur was talking to here. “It’s Gwen.”

“I believe he was actually talking to Merlin,” Leon spoke up.

Elyan shook his head, “no, that was definitely Gwen. She loves giving people flowers.”

“In that case I’ll go with Gwen,” Percival said.

“As will I,” spoke Lancelot.

The corners of the guards mouth twitched upwards for a split second. “The king was speaking to Merlin.”

Everyone’s jaws dropped, and Leon muttered a quiet “I told you so.” Gwaine nearly punched Leon’s face then and there.

“Nobody cares what you said Leon!” Gwaine shouted. Leon didn’t need to rub it in everyone’s face that he was right, now did he?

“By Gods, Gwaine, it’s just a game!” Leon said.

But it wasn’t just a game to Gwaine. If he lost this game, could he truly say Merlin was his best friend?

“Poetry,” said the guard, quickly moving on so he could finish this awful game.

Leon slammed his fist on the table and nearly knocked the chair over. “MERLIN!”

Gwaine’s eyes widened at the sureness in Leon’s voice, so he decided to copy what his older friend had said. Unfortunately, so did everyone else.

“You all can go suck my—”

“You were all correct, Arthur said this to Merlin,” the guard said, cutting off Gwaine from whatever he was about to say. “I haven’t seen you smile these past three days.”

“Um,” Elyan seemed hesitant while answering. “Gwen?”

“For fucks sake, this must be Merlin,” Gwaine said. There was no way this wasn’t Merlin. Gwaine prayed to the Gods that this was Merlin.

The rest of the knights said Gwen, so you could imagine Gwaine’s excitement when he finally got one right.

“You suck on that! You suck on that! You suck on that! And you!” Gwaine said, pausing when he got to Lancelot. “‘May go suck on that!”

“Enough Gwaine!” Elyan said, clearly upset he got this wrong and would likely lose 20 coins. “Let’s move on.”

“Um, the final one is—”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Percival said, twirling the crown once again in his hands. “This is the final one?”

The guard slowly nodded. 

“Then this one should count more points!” Percival argued.

“He’s right, whoever wins this won gets 5 points,” Lancelot said.

“But—”

“No Leon, this is only fair,” Gwaine said, happy with this new rule. He just had to get this one right. He could win this. 

“Is your little bottom sore?” The guard spurted awkwardly.

“What?” Leon said, shocked the guard had just talked to a knight like that.

“The quote. It’s ‘is your little bottom sore?’” The guard repeated.

Dear Gods Merlin, this had better be Gwen. “Gwen,” Gwaine said weakly.

“Gwen,” Lancelot said, a small shake to his voice.

“Gwen?” Elyan said, twitching in his seat. 

Everybody looked to Percival and Leon, waiting for their answers.

“Um,” they both said simultaneously.

“It was me, if I remember correctly,” A new voice said.

The knights all jumped up to see Merlin entering the room, with the queen by his side. And of course, just their luck, Arthur was only a few feet behind them.

“Was that not when we had been riding all day, Merlin?” Arthur asked his servant teasingly.

“It must’ve been, sire, I cannot think of any other time you would have said that,” Merlin responded.

Gwen rolled her eyes at the men and her eyes locked with her brothers. “What on Earth do you think you’re doing?”

“A game?” Elyan said weakly.

“Some game, it sounds like,” Merlin said.

All the knights blushed and looked down.

“Is that my crown?” Arthur said loudly, looking at Percival.

The knight looked up in surprise and dropped the crown on the floor for the second time that day. “No.”

The king sputtered out a string of words Gwaine couldn’t catch, but he did he the look Gwen gave her husband, and how quickly he stopped after that.

“What if we play a different game,” she suggested. “One more, how do I put this, appropriate.”

“Like what?” Leon asked politely.

“Two lies and a truth,” Merlin said gleefully.

“Do you have time for this?” Lancelot asked, mainly the king, but his eyes also lingered on Gwen and Merlin for a second.

“My duties have been finished for the day, I do not see why I cannot join,” Arthur said, taking his usually seat at the round table.

Merlin jumped onto the table and crossed his legs, “okay, okay, I wanna go first!”

Arthur waved his hand, signaling Merlin to continue.

“Okay, so I’ve never had a dog, my eyes are brown, and I have magic,” Merlin said slowly, so everyone could process his words.

Gwaine faintly remembered Merlin telling him about a dog he had had in his earlier days in Camelot, and his eyes were blue, so that meant— oh shit.

“This one is easy,” Arthur said, faintly amused. “You have brown eyes.”

“His eyes are blue you idiot,” Gwaine muttered, and Arthur froze, words sinking.

“Wait, what?”

“What the actual fuck Merlin?” Lancelot said, his hand smacking against his forehead.

“Since when had he had blue eyes?” Arthur said, his head swinging around to look at everyone.


End file.
